Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian explores inherited forms and concepts from the history of art in order to address issues of functionality, decoration, abstraction and feminism. Her sculptures, made from a wide range of materials including steel, silicon, resin and leather, bring art historical references into the realm of the subjective; they are dismantled and recombined with human physiology and the principles of interior design. The result offers a re-reading of the legacy of Minimalism and Surrealism in the shape of protuberances and cavities, lumps and spills, organs and body parts. Baghramian has often reflected on the incessant cycle of aesthetic-object production, cultivating an interest in marginalized art forms and spaces that are often considered territory of the “feminine”. Instability is also a recurrent theme in her work that becomes evident in the use of tenuous and flimsy supports to hold her sculptures, or in how she displays them, dangling or leaning her pieces, always on the brink of collapse. The strength of Baghramian’s practice lies precisely in revisiting the oft-overlooked and the delicate, using these tropes as a point of departure for sculptures that are aware of their own fragility while comfortably holding sway over the exhibition space